Yale Gets Penn State in NCAA 1st Round

May 05, 2013

Bulldogs Traveling For Saturday, 2:30 Game

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's lacrosse team, cooling off from its sizzling Ivy League Championship Game win over Princeton earlier in the day, gathered on the third floor of Ray Tompkins House tonight to watch ESPNU's NCAA Selection Show. The Bulldogs erupted when it was announced they would travel to No. 8 seed Penn State (12-4) on Saturday at 2:30 (ESPNU) for the first-round contest.

The Elis (11-4), who have split a pair of games with the Nittany Lions but have not played them since 2003, make their second straight NCAA appearance after successfully defending the 2012 Ivy Tournament title. Both championships carried an automatic national tournament entry as Yale became the first two-time Ivy Tournament winner.

"We don't know much about them," said Andy Shay, the Ryan & Forst Family Head Coach, about Penn State, which is ranked No. 9 and is making its first NCAA appearance since 2005. "I know they're great in goal and play great attack, and that's about all that I know for now. We'll really have to take a look at some film that we might have of common opponents and get to work right now."

There was some hope the Blue would get a home game this weekend after convincing wins over both Penn and Princeton.

"It's pretty cool, but I'm just excited we're in the tournament," said Brandon Mangan. " It's kind of a bummer we're not playing here, but it'll be exciting to go down to Happy Valley and play some Nittany Lions."

The winner of the Yale-Penn State contest takes on the winner of the Syracuse-Bryant matchup in a quarterfinal at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md. Syracuse is the No. 1 seed.

"We're definitely looking forward to this weekend against Penn State. They're a real good opponent, and I think they're a great match up for us," said Eli captain Michael McCormack. "I think we're pretty similar teams, so I think we were able to pull a pretty good draw here."

The Division I semifinal and championship games will be held at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pa., from May 25-27 and are hosted by Drexel University.